


A Man Needs to Eat

by Saxifactumterritum



Series: Moments universe [8]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Stargate, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-16
Updated: 2019-07-16
Packaged: 2020-06-29 19:19:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19836841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saxifactumterritum/pseuds/Saxifactumterritum
Summary: There was a question if John's still in touch with Lorne, that fic's not working so have this, a back-in-time of earlier days.





	A Man Needs to Eat

About two weeks after John moves into Rodney’s apartment, Rodney’s woken up by a buzzer he’d thought was just a single tone. In fact, it turns out, it’s programmable to all kinds of things. Including a tinny, bleepy version of ‘Ring of Fire’. Rodney drags himself off the couch and goes to fling open the door, glaring. It’s Lorne, now a light-colonel, standing with two bags of shopping, in shorts and a shirt, looking entirely cheerful. 

“What? It’s godawful o’clock in the morning. John’s not here,” Rodney says, then looks around, wondering where John is, actually. He probably told Rodney, but he’s been working on an idea that won’t quit.

“It’s twelve,” Lorne says, looking amused. 

Rodney remembers he’s in his Muppets boxers, and he’s wearing a slightly grubby shirt layered open over a t-shirt that he got yogurt on yesterday. 

“Whatever, I was up working until a few hours ago. What do you want?”

Lorne doesn't know him very well, and has never quite got over his weird Embarrassment at thinking Rodney's a girl. He doesn't shrink from Rodney's forceful irritation though. 

“Look, Dr Mckay, he asked me to teach him to cook. Surely that'll benefit you? You like food, right? That’s one thing Shep always said about his ‘girl back home’,” Lorne says. The last is muttered and he looks awkwardly at Rodney, grimacing. 

It would be nice if John could cook something other than pasta, and Lorne’s a good cook, John’s brought home left-overs before. Rodney concedes with ill-grace and lets Lorne in to wait on John. He himself goes to his office and goes back to his work, seeing as he’s up anyway, ignoring his reluctant guest. It’s not until the afternoon that he thinks to go out and check on things, see if Lorne wants a coffee maybe while he waits. He finds Lorne and John both in the kitchen, books spread out on the counter, something that smells good in the oven. John turns and sees him gaping and gives him the smuggest grin. He’s wearing the stupid shirt he has to wear to work at a toy store, with the store’s name and logo on it. It’s a t-shirt with a collar and John wears it popped like he’s a frat boy or something. It’s terrible. 

“When did you get back?” he accuses. And then, “Where did you go?” and then, “you invited Lorne to my house! In the morning! You weren’t here, I had to entertain him!”

“You abandoned him in the hallway,” John says. “He’s awkward. He waited like fifteen minutes before realising you weren’t coming back and he could just take his shoes off and come inside properly.”

“Really?” Rodney asks, trying not to laugh about that. John bites his lip the way he does when he feels affection for Rodney. He doesn’t like feeling affection for Rodney. Especially not with an audience. “Whatever. Answer my questions.”

“I got back hours and hours ago, I went to work, and yes I invited Lorne to come over, I live here now, it’s my house, I can have friends over,” John says, rolling his eyes and going back to his cook books, head bent toward Lorne. 

They make chilli for a late lunch and it actually tastes really good. John tries to get Rodney to sit out with them, with beers and a bag of potato chips, but he’s got work so he abandons them after lunch, shutting himself back in the office. He gets stuck after an hour and goes to shower and change. John’s still out on the deck with Lorne, Gwaihir in his lap, his legs stretched out; he’s just one long line of man and cat. He looks sleepy, and good. Rodney watches until John tips his head back, eyes narrowed, then he draws up a chair and nicks John’s beer. 

“Hey,” John says. “You won’t like it.”

He doesn’t. It’s American. He drinks it anyway, listening to John telling Lorne about the toy shop. 

“Why in hell did you apply for a job in retail? You don’t even like kids, Shep,” Lorne says, staring at John in utter bafflement. 

“I like ferris wheels,” John says, grinning goofily. 

Rodney doesn't reiterate for the billionth time that John isn't going to be allowed to just build ferris wheels out of k-nex, even if the toy store let him do that on his trial day. Whenever Rodney's pointed it out before he's been met with drawling speeches about Nerf guns and radio control airplanes, and models of some very specific planes, and on and on. John Sheppard, it should be more widely known, is a complete nerd and still a child.


End file.
